Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
[*]Tom Reynolds' Meta was not bad, but nothing special. I may have to read the next book to see if it got any better, but it just didn't strike a chord in me. |
I rather liked the second volume.
We get to see more of other Metas, how the bands work, and the way the government deals with the situation.
Superhero fiction is to an extent of the "I know it when I see it" kind but there are a lot of baseline cues that define the classic forms and yes, the character's behavior is number one. Put on a costume and take a code name? It's a superhero. The fun starts when the character or story diverges from the traditional forms and archetypes.
With Meta, the intriguing aspect of his mythology is the bands, literally falling through the sky and attaching themself to (random?) people creating both heroes and villains depending on the person's inclination. The implied promise is that the mystery will be explained as the series proceeds. I'm curious enough to stick around.
The writing is clean YA prose, no wordsmithing gimmicks, and he plays off most of the standard secret Identity tropes, with a twist or two. For example, it is the protagonist who frets about somebody else being a secret meta. It a generally fun frothy diversion...
...and a good example of the kind of good indie material no tradpub would bother with; it's no GLADIATOR or SUPER FOLKS, it simply takes standard tropes and plays with them. Not likely to sell a million, redefine the genre or anything like that. But it is better than a lot of the stories in the mainstream comics in 2015 (a pretty bad year, admittedly) for less than a typical floppy.
Not a bad buy if you're into the genre.